UPPER SANDSTONES. 229 



The next most important circumstance relating to 

 this series, is its universality, or rather, its great ex- 

 tent; as formerly noticed in the chapter on the Revo- 

 lutions of the Glohe. Added to this, is the general 

 or frequent unconformable position which, jointly 

 with the magnesian limestone, it holds to the se- 

 condary rocks beneath. The interest thus connected 

 with its localities is considerable ; and it is not a little 

 remarkable that it is the only one of the secondary 

 strata which has been traced with unquestionable cha- 

 racters in all quarters of the world. The marked 

 nature of that character, in being the repository of the 

 two mineral substances above-named, have indeed given 

 it an advantage in this respect, which has not yet occur- 

 red in any other deposit. It is a means of identification 

 afforded by nothing else : while the limitation and the 

 peculiarity both, bespeak some universal, or very wide 

 condition of the Earth's surface at the period of its 

 deposition, to which we as yet know of no parallel 

 unable as we may be to conjecture its nature. 



Not to detail localities more minutely than a work 

 of this nature well admits, it abounds in England, as 

 also in France, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Spain, 

 and Italy, being^Jftdeed, generally extended over the 

 European continent. It is a remarkable fact, however^ 

 if true, that, in the former countries, it contains no 

 salt to the south of the Alps. If we proceed inta 

 Asia, "it is found, extending, from Riga, to the Ural 

 chain, abounding between the Ural river and the 

 Wolga, reaching to the Caspian, and thence spreading 

 far and wide into all the neighbouring countries ; 

 being found in Asia Minor, as well as in Persia, Tar- 

 tary, India, and China. 



This stratum abounds, indeed, all over Asia ; and 

 he who desires to trace its extent, may apparently do 



